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Earth, Water, Air, and Fire are the four elements of Life, but they are also the inspiration behind the spectacular catwalk show created by the designer Lana Lichman to mark her participation at Fleuramour 2016 in Belgium.
For its second performance at this great flower event which ran 23-29 September, the Australian Designer decided to impress! She brought to life on stage before a mesmerised international audience a botanical couture catwalk show! ELEMENTAL, the collection interpreting “the four elements” through flowers was perfectly designed to comply with the show theme for this edition. However Lana added a heavenly fifth element which made of to the show an event in itself. The designer did not only defy the conceptual design challenge, but also she had to face the production technical issue and the timing challenge, in order to come up on stage, on time, with the costumes as fresh as possible.
WATER, in its different forms, was represented in three costumes: Blue Hydrangea dress in the shape of the wave, a large headdress in the shape of a cloud, and the Ice Queen dress covered with handmade skeleton leaves and white Vanda orchids cloak.
EARTH was seen in two creative costumes: Red Earth, a dress covered in Australian native and tropical flowers, and Desert, a Belly Dance outfit completed with a flower belt and butterfly top with yellow Vanda orchids.
AIR was expressed through Dandelion, Sylph, and Storm. The first is a large scale radial headdress finished with 200 individually attached Nerine blooms and a green dress with a tail decorated with foliage and green Amaranthus. The second is the fairy tale costume with wings, bodice and headdress decorated with bleached mulburry bark, feather grass, anthuriums and white Vanda orchids. The third was only expressed through the music and the dance of the model who carried a large cone shaped object representing the tornado.
FIRE was strongly present as Flame and as Firestorm. Flame was a long asymmetrical cocktail dress accessorised with 100 Strelitsia petals wired on to red feather boa, presented on stage in a solo Latin routine dance. While Firestorm had a dynamic presentation on stage with wild jumps and turns. This Dominetrix like character had a bodice and a shoulder wrap decorated with feather, Broomiliads and anthuriums.
“Wearable designs always start with a sketch of the idea and dress. Then I looked for the materials available at this time of the year. Finding fabrics, accessories and dresses to suit the designs was the next stage. We brought the majority of the material, excluding fresh flowers, with us”, said the designer. “All the bases for the designs were constructed in 3 days before the show on location. Fresh material added on day 4. Some of the delicate elements of the designs were completed on the day of the first show”, she added.
When asked what materials she has chosen to work with and why, the designer said: “I love working with Anco Pure Vanda orchids as they last immensely well with minimum or no water source, which is extremely handy for wearable designs. Anthuriums, Celozia and Amaranthus were chosen for the same qualities. Ice design based on 600 skeletonised rubber tree leaves covered in special resin solution to obtain “frosted” look. It took a while to make them. I like to experiment with new materials.”
www.lanalichman.carbonmade.com
